Shards of Sin is the first, #61, of the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo Publishing. This is a supplement for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License with some parts considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for 1st level characters who are expected to be into 5th level by its end. The Adventure Path then continues in Curse of the Lady’s Light.
The PDF is available from the Paizo site for $13.99 but was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. It is also available as a printed book from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and has 100 pages. Two pages are the front and rear covers, two pages are the front matter, one the Table of Contents, half a page is the Open Game License and four pages are ads. A second, five-page PDF has interactive maps of the locations for use by the players.
Inside what would be the front and rear covers are two short adventure hooks and two monuments that grant boons.
Back to Varisia is the foreword and it explains that they are returning to Varisia and that this adventure path follows on from the events of Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne and Second Darkness, though only the city Magnimar, briefly visited in Rise of the Runelords, is visited again. It explains that a lot of this adventure is on exploring a large dungeon but Magnimar can be explored as well. There are brief overviews of key NPC quests, Magnimarian quests and some minor ones.
Shards of Sin is the adventure itself and starts with a single page that lists the parts of the adventure as well as the advancement track. Adventure Background explains that the Sihedron was an artefact of Thassilon that gave enormous power to First King Xin. Xin was overthrown by the Runelords and the Sihedron broken apart, now known as the Shattered Star. The shards are valuable, powerful and dangerous. After recent events, Sheila Heidmarch and her husband moved to Magnimar to setup a Pathfinder lodge. A summary as to what the characters, new Pathfinder recruits, need to do in the adventure follows.
Part One: A Game Afoot in Magnimar has the characters at the Pathfinder lodge where they are initially asked if they can solve a puzzle box. Next, they are given an assignment to look for a missing Pathfinder contact, with several leads to follow up on.
Part Two: The Seeker’s Shard has the characters having located the missing contact and discovered where she’s lairing. They will head there, recover the shard and deal with her in some way; whether or not she lives or dies is unimportant to the adventure.
Part Three: In the Crow’s Nest is the true beginning of the adventure path and has the characters told what the shard is before they head to a piling of the Irespan, a former bridge in Magnimar, called the Crow.
Part Four: A Legacy of Wrath explores a small, secret complex of laboratories beneath the Crow, parts of which have been taken over by a number of lesser devils and other parts home to derro.
Concluding the Adventure wraps things up for this adventure.
The Appendix has the stats for two important NPCs and several new magic items.
The Shattered Star covers the founding of Thassilon by Xin, the seven virtues and seven schools and his creation of the Sihedron, to his betrayal by the Runelords when he dismantled the item. Each shard of the Sihedron is then detailed, with its powers and how it is activated. The full abilities of a complete Sihedron are not covered in this supplement. The powers of the seven different types of skymetal used in constructing the Sihedron follow.
Pathfinder’s Journal: Light of a Distant Star 1 of 6 is the first part of a piece of fiction set in Riddleport.
Bestiary starts with an encounter table for Magnimar together with three special encounters. Magnimar, City of Monuments is recommended for a wider range of encounters. This is followed by seven new monsters.
Unearthing the Past is an outline of each module in the Adventure Path, including this one, together with a longer description of the next issue.
Shards of Sin in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents just gives the major sections. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a variety of custom colour illustrations, up to half a page in size, including for the new monsters and items which is useful, as well as the colour maps, which as mentioned are duplicated for the players in a second PDF. Presentation is very good.
With this being an adventure path, it follows a fairly linear format, though the order of some sections can be altered, they will still need doing before moving on. The exploration of the Irespan pillar and the laboratory beneath it is less linear, as it’s a dungeon, and one that characters could leave and re-enter as desired. The GM can always make the adventure less linear by adding side quests, and make it so that the Irespan pillar sees changes, other than monsters being killed.
There isn’t that much new background material in this supplement, bar the details on the Sihedron, which is an item relevant to the entire path. Few details are given on Magnimar; perhaps because the city is already detailed in its own supplement. A GM may need to get that to fully utilise the city.
The fiction seems interesting, but it also at the moment seems completely irrelevant to the adventure. Perhaps that will change. The Bestiary is what would be expected; new monsters. Though most are not used in this adventure. As with many adventure path modules, this does suffer a bit from linearity as mentioned, though being able to wander all through the Irespan pillar at will does counteract that to a degree. Shards of Sin is a decent start to the adventure path.
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